Dan Soucoup's Historic New Brunswick
Mum had warned us before we went to school that we were to be very polite and mannerly when we came home as the student minister was coming to supper.
As we entered the kitchen, we saw the company-only maple leaf china had been brought out and we could smell potato scallop and meatloaf cooking. Hot tea biscuits were in the warming closet. I was hoping for strawberry preserves for dessert.
I really didn't enjoy this type of company at the supper table as we were expected to wait until everyone had finished eating before we could excuse ourselves and run out to play. Furthermore conversation with a minister could be really boring.
After the saying of grace, the minister started to talk to Dad about the weather. I picked up my ears as he asked if the wind blew hard in our valley and then proceeded to talk about the Saxby Gale of 1869. I had never heard of that storm. Next he brought up the topic of Robert Foulis of Saint John inventing the fog horn in 1859. When the conversation rolled around to the University he attended, he said that Mount Allison had only seven students when it opened. Grace Annie Lockhart the first woman graduate from a degree-granting college in the British Empire received her Bachelor's degree in Science and Literature from there.
He told Mum that he had a major in history. That statement really confused me. Why would an army person be learning to become a minister?
As the years have passed, I have figured out the meaning of a major in history and I have also read quite a few books on New Brunswick history. One of them being, ‘Historic New Brunswick' by Dan Soucoup, an account of important historic events and the people who have shaped the province and its traditions from the earliest of times up to the post-war years of the 1950s.
In this publication, you can read about the Saxby Gale, Robert Foulis's foghorn, the opening of the Mount Allison Academy in 1843 as well as coal mining at Grand Lake in 1643, Thomas Pichon - the spy of Fort Beausejour, the war of 1812, Free Meeting House, Indian School scandal, King's College, woodboats, Westmorland Road, a church burning on Grand Manan, Penny Paper, Edward Baron Chandler, Perley's Indian Report, Woodstock Riot, New Brunswick's last duel, Leonard Tilley, Free School Act, the arrest of Oscar Wilde, Valentin Landry, K. C. Irving arrives in Saint John and Wallace Turnbull to name a few.
For a better understanding of the times in which our ancestors lived,
one needs to have knowledge of the historical events that were taking place.
‘Historic New Brunswick' by Dan Soucoup should be available in local
bookstores.
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Queries
Query 886
Coleman - Whelan - Devine: I am searching for the ancestors of Thomas
Coleman born 1826 in New Brunswick or Ireland. He died in1914 at Holden,
Maine. In1846 he was married to Catherine Whelan from Sussex. She died in
1875 and is buried in the Saddleback cemetery, Kings County. He had a farm
in Hillsdale and his daughter Mary married Matthew Devine and lived on his
farm after he moved to Maine in 1875. Possible relatives or brothers are
Patrick from St. Martins and William and Daniel of Hampton.
-Thomas Coleman, R.F.D.2 Box2500, Holden, Maine, 04429, USA. E-mail
to Paucole@aol.com.
Query 887
Flagg - Hunt: I am looking for information on Josiah Flagg and Sarah
Hunt who were married on Campobello Island. I know that their parents were
very early settlers on the island. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
-Paula Flagg, 2425 Garin Road, Watsonville, CA., 95076, USA.
E-mail to jpflagg@cs.com.
Query 888
Ostle - McIntosh - Murray - Thompson: I am hoping that readers will
be interested in some research that I've been doing about a branch of my
Ostle family who came to New Brunswick in the 1820s. The results so far can
be found on my website at http://users.tinyworld.co.uk/peterostle/.
The "Brief History" on the home page gives a general background on the family.
It seems the Ostle name died out in New Brunswick around 1900, although there
are several other families of Ostles living in Canada now. I would like to
get in touch with any members of the families into which we married: the
McIntosh and Murray families of Richibucto and, especially, anyone who is
related to or can tell me more about the ship-building Thompson family who
launched the schooner Matthewman Ostle.
-Peter Ostle, 4 Bakewell Green, Newhall, Swadlincote, Derbyshire, DE11
0TE, England. E-mail to Peterostle@tinyworld.co.uk
Query 889
Belyea - Vanwart: I am searching for parents and ancestors of William
Nelson Belyea, a Sea Captain, who was born in 1828 in Hampstead, Queens County.
He married Margaret Elizabeth Vanwart and they resided on St. David Street
in Saint John. His death occurred previous to 1892. A son Frank was born
in Saint John in 1870.
-Robert Belyea, 58 Clarendon Terrace, Newington, CT., 06111, USA. E-mail
to rlbelyea@msn.com.
Query 890
Blair - Appleby - Wanamaker - McCumber: I am searching for information
on William Blair, born about 1836 in Hampton, Kings County. He married Emily
Summers Appleby, a daughter of Benjamin H. Appleby and Margaret Susannah Wanamaker,
on December 12, 1860. William Blair died on May 26, 1880 in Hampton of consumption.
I would like to find information on William's parents and siblings as well
as on his son J. Percy Blair, who was born on May 4, 1878 and was married
to Alice McCumber before 1909.
-Cindy Donovan, 657 Upper Brookside Road, Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada,
B2N 5B1. E-mail to s.d@ns.sympatico.ca.
